Wednesday, October 31, 2012

SpellingCity is a fantastic site for all Spelling & Vocabulary means. This is done by finding or creating your own word lists (that can be imported) and then integrating them into educational games. This is an absolute great resource for teachers that also offers a free iOS app.

theLearnia is a new (beta) site for educational videos. This is done through a social network aspect that allows teachers to upload videos into "lessons" and then share w/ students. Users can then discuss via public/private messaging about the video. This is an ideal site for online learning.

Monday, October 29, 2012

EdShelf is a site I blog about quite often and one of my favorite new sites of the year. This is a great place for users to curate the web into lists as well as: rate, find, and organize new sites/apps. Edshelf is very user friendly, offers in depth reviews, as well as provide videos and links for Ed Tech products.

SurveyFace is a nice online site I found out about from one of my readers for creating surveys. There are lots of great features for users to like such as: templates, reporting, real-time results, and more. Best of all this SF is free!!

Sunday, October 28, 2012

SendHub is a site I've covered before that is ideal for creating another
line for your phone for free. This is great for education as it allows
teachers to send texts to groups of students, parents, etc for free
from any online device.

Here is more detailed info from a recent email...

"SendHub is a simple and fast way for professionals to communicate;
providing businesses, and organizations, with a call and messaging
solution to reach small and large groups of people. Their simple
interface lets users place & accept calls, as well as send group
messages to everyone, from anywhere. SendHub was founded for teachers,
but has also seen successful usage from businesses, political
organizations, faith groups and more."

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Problem-Attic is a site I just found out about through an email which is ideal for finding thousands of test questions that a educator can customize to meet their needs.

Here is more details from their email...

"Today, through Problem-Attic, more than 40,000, high quality,
challenging questions from 30 years of past New York Regents tests are
available and the site's offerings will continue to grow over the weeks
and months to come. Using Problem-Attic's
easy-to-use tools, teachers can search questions covering mathematics,
science, social studies and English by subject and topic, select the
ones that meet their needs and reformatted them into tests, quizzes,
worksheets, flashcards, or even problem-of-the-day
calendars."

Colingo is a new (beta) site for learning English. This is done in a fun environment through the use of video. Also, these videos are hosted on YouTube and online classes are are offered all day by native English speakers.

ESL Library is a wonderful site for educators of the English language looking for lesson plans and flashcards. There are over 500 lesson plans and 2000 vocabulary images. Also, there are lots of activities for students such as: group, real world issues, role-playing, and more.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Penpal News is a great free site for MS/HS students for engaging in online dialogues on real-world issues.

Here is some more info from their email...

"Our current Red-Blue initiative has been featured in the New York Times. We pair students
from red states and blue states to discuss issues such as immigration,
education and health care. Each exchange lasts 6 weeks, with one
45-minute lesson each week that students can complete in class or at
home, depending on the teacher's preference. We already have more than
6,000 students in 25 states participating."

InSkilled is a innovative site that engages learns by allowing them to collect, share, and learn online content. This is done in a unique way where users collect information such as websites or videos and curate them into online lessons. These lessons can then be shared w/ others. Another great feature is the ability track and see how much time you've spent on a lesson as well as other detailed information.

Snap Class is an excellent site for educators & students that want to host or take classes online. This is done in a safe/secure way through the use of webchat or over the phone. A person can host or take a class on any number subjects. Best of all Snap Class helps market your classes which can help educators/people earn money for their teachings.

Monday, October 22, 2012

Miracle of Life is a fantastic iPad app designed to teach kids about the human growth cycle and development. This is done in a tasteful and educational way through the use of interactive games, animations, and illustrations. This app is ideal for Health teachers and parents and focuses on the 3 stages of development such as: fertilization, gestation, and growth.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Lingual is an exciting new multi-lanugage learning iPad app that is under development (via Kickstarter program) by Tiny Factory. This is done through innovative game play that has players visiting different landmarks to not only help teach the language but geography and culture as well. It is a part of a Kickstarter program which is looking to fund their efforts and release the app this Dec.

I highly recommend checking out Lingual and even supporting it by clicking here!!!

Spanish Verb Chart is a an excellent interactive chart/application for verb conjugation. This chart helps people learn the Spanish language by illustrating the 14 basic verb tenses of the Spanish language. Also, it is ideal for Teachers of the Spanish language and can be used on any iOS device.

I highly recommend checking out Spanish Verb Chart for those wanting to teach or learn Spanish by clicking here!!

BoomWriter recently released a new press release on their free book giveaway...

"Let your students work collaboratively to write a
book using BoomWriter, a 100% free and easy to use education technology,
and we’ll publish it and give you one free copy to share with your
class. We’ll even pay for the shipping! This will be a great
opportunity for you to integrate more literacy and technology into your
instruction while also providing a chance for your students to become
published authors. The students will love seeing all of their names in a
real published book that they worked together to create! Register now
for free at http://www.boomwriter.com/schools to get your students writing that book!"

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

"Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictionalmotion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record. (Wikipedia)" Documentaries are used in education all the time to educate and inform students about different nonfictional topics. While there are a ton of sites to choose from, I've decide to curate this list to make it easier for educators to find what they are looking for.*This list is in alphabetical order.10 Sites for Educational Documentaries

Chockadoc - A nice site for finding documentaries w/ an educational category where people can rate videos as well.

Documentary Heaven - A great place to find 1000's of documentaries on a wide variety of subjects.

Documentary Storm - A fun community for finding documentaries rated on a 6 star scale. Users have the ability to leave comments and collaborate w/ others.

Documentary Tube - A wonderful place to find documentaries where users can save documentaries by creating playlists.

Tackk is a site I just learned about from one of my favorite blogs, The Educational Technology Guy. This site reminds me a bit of Glogster as it is a place to create a page w/ multi-media content. A person can add text, images, embed items and more. Once a board is finished then can then share it via a URL. These boards do get erased over time but if a person creates a free account then can then save it.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

The Answer Pad is a free service for teachers that allows teachers to create electronic answer sheet for any test they create on any subject online. Students then take these tests via a free app on the iPad, TAPit. Teachers can access their scores, reports, and more all online.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Teachem is an interesting site that allows users to create online courses (public/private) by adding questions to YouTube videos. These questions are flashcard style and very easy to create. Also, it's very useful to search through other educational courses that have been created for pedagogy purposes.

Meograph is a new (beta) site I've posted about that is ideal for four dimensional digital storytelling. This is done in a very innovative way that incorporates: video, Google Maps, and Google Earth. Once a story/video is finished it can then be shared w/ others by embedding into a site/blog.

Also, there are some new features set to debut this week such as:

Geo optional: Now it's optional whether to add location
to moments of your story. Keeps authoring easy, keeps context when
desired, and dramatically expands the range of stories you can tell with
Meograph. Check out updated examples at www.meograph.com/demo.

Browser support: Meographs can be authored now in any browser. Playback continues to work everywhere, including mobile.

Friday, October 12, 2012

ClassBadges is a cool new site that I found out about from the wonderful Ed Tech review site, EdShelf. This is innovative site that is a lot of fun to use. It allows teachers to assign class badges to students so they can visualize how they are doing. This is not only great for encouraging performance but is a nice way to add gamification to your classroom.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

GazziliWorld is a nice company that designs beautiful looking iOS apps for preschool aged children. These apps cover: words, puzzles, shapes, and science, w/ math and letters soon to follow. I downloaded the Gazzili Word game for my kids and loved how easy it was for them to use. My 3 yr old had a blast w/ the different games in the app that focuses on fingerprints, rainbows, and balance.

WikiBrains is a cool site that allows users to create a brainstorm in the style of a wiki. It's pretty interesting in the way it works like a search engine but starts mapping out terms that you type in, and then connects them. Also, users can browse, share, and edit other brainstorms (hence the wiki feature).

Web of Stories is an interesting site that I just learned about from Larry Ferlazzo's excellent blog. This is a site designed to tell stories through the use of video. A person can either upload their video or record straight from their site. Users even have the ability to edit/trim their video. I think this is a nice site for digital storytelling and students have lots of stories from celebrities, historians, and more they can browse through.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Chegg is an excellent site for students looking to buy or rent text books. Also, students can find ebooks as well as sell their books. Another great feature of Chegg is their educational portal which helps students w/ their homework. This is done by either typing a question or by browsing through Chegg books w/ step by step instructions/solutions.

I highly recommend checking out Chegg if you're looking to buy/sell textbooks (ebooks), homework help or math answers.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

C-Fit is a series of iOS (iPad/iPhone) video apps that I just found out about through a promotional email. These apps are designed to showcase videos that can be used in the classroom to promote fitness. In having a background in Phys Ed & Health, I was very excited to check out this site. C-Fit offers apps at a very low price ($.99) for promoting: dance, yoga, and cross training that can be done in the classroom or living room. These apps were designed by educators and help promote a healthy lifestyle. Also, this is a nice app to have during in-door recess, a break during testing, or other "down" times.

Superflashcard is a site that I just found out about from one of my readers. This is a great site for finding flashcards in a wide variety of subjects such as foreign languages and exams. Also, a user can save their favorite cards and use them to study by creating slideshows or quizzes.

Monday, October 8, 2012

Sophia is a social learning network that I've blogged about in the past. It's been awhile since I've been here and am glad that I've revisited this wonderful site. This is a great place for any educator or student looking to find resources or learn a subject. This is all done through a very user friendly interface and filled w/ lots of video tutorials and resources to look through. Also, Sophia is a great place for a teacher looking to "flip" their classroom.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Gnowledge is a wonderful site for creating online tests, assignments, and exercises. These test are saved online and can be shared w/ others. Also, a teacher can get real-time results, collaborate w/ others, and more. Plus, Gnowledge has excellent video tutorials as well as top-line tech support.

FluencyFinder is a Reading Assessment tool designed for the iOS for grades 1st - 5th. This app was developed by educators to help save teachers save time testing and spend more time teaching. This is done through a very innovative and user friendly interface that makes assessing quick, easy, and effective.

What makes FluencyFinder so great is how easy and effective it is to use. All a user has to do to get started is download the app and start creating their class of students the mobile app. Once a student is created a teacher can begin their assessment by choosing 1 of the 6 Reading passages designed for that grade level (30 total 6 per grade. From the FF website a teacher would print out their selected passage and then have the student start reading while pushing the start button on their mobile device's timer. While a student reads they would push the plus or minus button on their mobile device to track and mark mistakes.

That's it. Once the student is finished the teacher would hit the stop timer button and get instant real-time results. All of the student's data is tracked and stored via the mobile device. FluencyFinder does it all so it saves teacher's time and tracks their results while teacher's can focus on assessing student's reading fluency. Also, FF is great for Special Ed and ESL/ELL for those needing help or reinforcing the English language.

Find out why FluencyFinder is the best Reading Assessment tool by clicking here!!!

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Pathbrite is a great site for creating digital portfolios that I just found out about from Free Technology 4 Teachers. This is a done by completing a template that can include: audio, video, Google Docs, images, links and more. Portfolios also can integrate data from social networks and share w/ others via a unique URL.

Realtime Board is a new (beta) site for creating a collaborative whiteboard. These boards are ideal for brainstorming ideas, creating infographics, and more. This is all done through a very user friendly interface w/ a slick design for drawing, adding post it notes, text, and more.

SendHub is a site I just learned about from Free Technology 4 Teachers. This is a great site/app for texting a group of students or parents w/ a free SH number. A user has the ability to create up to 3 groups and then send group text via online or the free iPhone app.

Kids Flashcard Maker is a wonderful iOS app by INKids for creating beautiful looking interactive flashcards. These flashcards can contain recorded audio, video, images, etc. They are ideal for teachers looking to teach kids words or other concepts. Also, students can create their own flashcard decks for Spelling practice and more.

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David Kapuler

I have been working w/ technology and education for over 14 years in a school setting. I'm looking for work in a K-12 environment as a Technology Integration/Support Specialist in WI/IL. Contact email - dkapuler@gmail.com
I'm currently looking to get my Mac OS/Repair Certification, as well as a Masters in Technology Integration.
Also, I have a solid background in web design, w/ network/server support.
On a personal note, I';m a proud father of 3 boys and 1 girl, and have been married for 10 years.